One of the bonuses of taking so long to lose weight is that I’ve got used to eating less.  In the past, I’ve dieted to a certain point and never given myself time to adjust to the idea that maintenance happens as long as you continue to eat less than you did at your higher weight.  This time, stuffing my face daily is a distant memory.

Obviously, weight loss and maintenance depend on finding the right balance between calories in, and calories burned.  I find that I like the freedom that Nutracheck allows you to either eat less, exercise more, or choose to lose less each week – as long as you eat a minimum of 1400 calories per day.

When I first signed up, I weighed 170lbs and could lose 1.5lbs per week eating 1400 calories and exercising 200 calories per day.

I’m now 27lbs lighter and almost 2 years older so can only expect a pound a week with the same calories consumed and burnt. And, frankly, I’m happy with half a pound per week.

You can play with figures here.

When I actually get to 139, then I can only expect to eat 1850 calories per day and that assumes that I’m burning an extra 200 calories a day in activities.   If I’m not exercising conscientiously then I should only eat about 200 more calories than I right now in “losing mode”.  I need to get that firmly implanted in my psyche!

• Moving daily

• Eating well but not abundantly

That’s going to be the story of the rest of my slimmed down life.

I had one of those “non-scale victories” today.  I had a quick trip out despite my croaky throat to take a friend to Costco.  They’ve got some nice, cheap denim skirts which, of course, you can’t try on.  I looked at the 14 (US 10) but it looked too big.  So I grabbed a 12 (US with the words, “It’s probably too small but I can always bring it back.”

Well it’s a bit too big – not baggy, but loose in the waist – which is where most skirts are too tight.

I wonder what the next few weeks will bring.